Seia the Savior
The children who looked to be around Seia’s age numbered only about two. The rest appeared to be elementary schoolers.
Some had come with both parents, while others, like Seia, had come with just their dad.
There were also plenty of kids who had come with their moms.
The moment the staff realized everyone who had made a reservation had arrived, their demeanor shifted noticeably.
“…Everyone. We must deliver the fruits of our research institute’s labor to the outside world.”
Some children were frightened by the dinosaurs, while others found them amusing.
Seia, of course, fell into the former group.
It was her first time seeing such a terrifying-looking creature in real life.
Yet beneath the words about having to deliver the research results, there was also a sense of solemn resolve.
“The dinosaur test subjects we were studying have awakened, and the institute has entered emergency lockdown. To escape the lab, you must complete the mission in each room.”
To Seia and the other children, nothing could have felt more urgent.
Proof of that was the way Seia’s small hand tightened around Jeong Woo’s.
“We’ll head to Room 1 first!”
The first room the staff member in a lab coat guided them to was a dinosaur-themed escape room.
Perhaps because it was designed for children, the moment they stepped inside, it was immediately obvious where they needed to investigate.
“To get to the next room…”
It was simple.
Find the hidden items and unlock the door.
Since the room had been made with kids in mind, far more attention had been paid to the surrounding theme than to the difficulty of the puzzles.
Once the children finished listening to the instructions and understood them, they began searching everywhere for a way out.
Seia joined in enthusiastically.
Unlike the adults, however, her desperation was plain to see.
“Where is it…!”
She was determined to find it.
If they couldn’t find the clues, they wouldn’t just be stuck here—they’d put all of humanity in danger.
While everyone was searching different spots, Seia found something.
“Daddy!”
She held up a single sheet of paper clutched tightly in her hand.
Written on it were the words: “First, 3.”
“Good job! Shall we look for the others too?”
“Yes!”
After that, the other children began finding clues one by one, but there was a time limit.
“Raaawr!”
A dinosaur’s roar echoed through the room.
“Waaah!”
As if resonating with the roar, Seia’s cry rang out at the same time.
If they couldn’t finish in time, the mission would fail.
It was probably just a way to keep the next group’s reservation on schedule, but the tension it created was pleasant enough.
While Jeong Woo soothed Seia, who had come running into his arms in fright, the other children found their clues one after another.
The mission was a success.
Leaving the now-louder dinosaur roars behind, everyone moved on to the next room.
From then on, only the type of puzzle changed—the theme itself remained the same.
They had to shake off the pursuing dinosaurs and reach the next room.
After passing through several rooms, the staff member in the lab coat who had guided them at the start was waiting.
“Well done, everyone! Thanks to you, humanity will survive!”
“Yaaay—!”
The children cheered and clapped, expressing the sense of accomplishment that came with saving humanity.
Seia, too, seemed satisfied at having become humanity’s savior, her face blooming with a bright smile.
“We’re handing out proof that you helped our lab. If you’d like one, please gather over here.”
It was exactly what they had been told beforehand.
They would receive a sticker shaped like a dinosaur claw mark scratched across the cheek.
It wasn’t mandatory, but receiving one would change how they were treated throughout the amusement park.
“Do you want one, Seia?”
Seia wore the triumphant expression of someone who had won a battle against dinosaurs.
She was savoring the feeling to the fullest.
“Yes! Seia’s a savior!”
Such pride.
Jeong Woo let out a soft chuckle and headed toward the gathering spot with Seia.
There weren’t as many children as he had expected.
The ones who had looked her age seemed to have gone off to ride other attractions.
In the end, Seia was the only one who received a sticker.
All the staff gathered around to congratulate her.
“Wow—our savior~”
“Thanks to you, humanity has been saved!”
“Heheh…”
A female staff member approached the bashfully pleased Seia, sticker in hand.
‘Goodness, she’s so pretty.’
She had met countless children before, but the one in front of her felt completely different.
“Which cheek would you like it on?”
“The prettier one!”
The prettier one, huh.
She looked at Seia from the left, then the right, but from every angle, the child was unbearably cute.
“I’ll put it on the right.”
“Okay!”
The way the little girl answered so brightly and smiled so sunnily made the staff member feel as though she might be enchanted.
The other staff members weren’t feeling much differently.
They simply hadn’t been able to show it because they were working.
When the woman reached out to place the drawing on Seia’s cheek, a soft, bouncy sensation met her fingertips.
How could skin be this soft and jelly-like?
She finally understood why people raved about baby skin.
Besides Jeong Woo, this was the first time anyone had seen Seia up close with her eyes tightly shut.
Her long eyelashes stood out.
She wanted nothing more than to keep squishing that springy cheek, but she couldn’t.
“There, all done.”
When she held up a hand mirror, Seia looked thoroughly satisfied.
It was a rather cool design, after all—and proof that she was a savior, evidence that she had rescued the lab.
“Wow, our Seia looks so cool.”
“Hehe, cool, right?”
“Yeah. Really cool. You even saved the lab.”
“Seia’s a savior!”
“That’s right! Our Seia is a savior!”
While they were still buzzing with excitement, a staff member appeared with another gift.
It was a set of photos capturing every moment of Seia conquering the lab.
There was one of her crying in harmony with the dinosaur’s roar, another of her diligently examining clues.
There was also a shot of her beaming when the door opened.
Though only a few pictures, they held Seia’s many different emotions.
“Oh, thank you.”
“Not at all. Have a wonderful day!”
After the staff’s farewells, Jeong Woo and Seia headed elsewhere.
Simply walking through the amusement park was creating memories.
Things they had never seen before, things they could hardly have imagined, were unfolding right before their eyes.
‘Today is a day just for playing.’
So there were no restrictions on snacks, either.
When Jeong Woo was young, he had scraped together his allowance to buy marble ice cream and churros.
They were snacks you could eat outside, too, but somehow, eating them at an amusement park tasted deeper, more special.
Proof of that was Seia’s remarkable nose twitching as she sniffed out where the snacks were.
“Want to go over there, Seia?”
“Where?”
“There.”
The place Jeong Woo pointed to was a shop selling all kinds of souvenirs.
Besides the headbands they had worn for photos last time, there were all sorts of hats, toys, and more.
For children, it was practically paradise.
The moment they stepped through the entrance, Seia’s eyes sparkled as if she were beholding heaven itself.
Bringing Seia here had also been partly to satisfy Jeong Woo’s own selfish desires.
Those headbands they had worn for the photos.
They had been so cute, but he hadn’t been able to see them except during the shoot.
So today, he planned to put every kind on her, all day long.
Bears, rabbits, cats… even devil horns.
‘I don’t know. Let’s just buy them all.’
Figuring out which one suited her best was meaningless in front of Seia.
Because every single one looked good on her.
While Jeong Woo was indulging his own whims, Seia was indulging hers in her own way.
Most little girls would have their eyes drawn to dolls, but Seia was a little different.
“What’s this?”
Standing in front of the strangely shaped toys, Seia wondered what on earth they were.
“It’s a toy you blow into.”
Jeong Woo’s arms were already full of every kind of headband.
The toy Seia was looking at was a trumpet that made a “toot” sound when you blew air into it.
“Can I try it?”
“Haha. Daddy will buy you one. Let’s try it later.”
“Okay!”
Besides that, Seia’s eyes lingered on several other toys.
What was interesting was that they were all simple toys.
Things like wind-up toys that moved when you turned the key.
Among them, the one Seia stared at the longest was a snow globe.
The kind where snow seemed to fall when you turned it upside down.
“Pretty…”
The toy had instantly captured both Seia’s eyes and her heart.
There was no complicated process—just flipping it made snow fall. How magical was that?
“You think this one’s pretty too?”
“Yes. Snow falls.”
Seia was a child who truly loved snow.
When it snowed, the whole world turned white.
Last winter, unfortunately, there hadn’t been much snow.
It had snowed a little, but not heavily enough to pile up.
“Seia, do you remember when the snow piled up?”
“When Seia was little.”
It was an odd thing to hear from a five-year-old, but it wasn’t wrong.
After all, she had lived barely half her current age.
Jeong Woo couldn’t remember anything from when he was three, but Seia seemed to remember.
“What was it like?”
“Everything was white.”
Everywhere the snow touched had been white.
It was the first time Seia had ever seen such a sight in her life.
She had wanted to see it again, but after that, days when the whole world was covered in white had rarely come.
“I hope it piles up like this next time…”
Seia murmured softly as she watched the snow fall inside the globe she had flipped over.
It was something even Jeong Woo couldn’t do anything about, so he couldn’t offer any words of comfort.
He simply wondered—if there was a god out there.
If the god who had never answered his prayers until now existed, then surely, at the very least, it could make it snow a lot.
“It’ll snow a lot next time.”
And so the shopping inside the store continued.
Besides the toy Seia had chosen, they bought several other toys, and of course, every headband Jeong Woo had picked was purchased as well.
“Thank you! Have a nice day—”
Leaving behind the far more energetic farewells of the staff, they stepped out of the store.
Jeong Woo immediately pulled a headband from the shopping bag and indulged his selfish desire right away.
‘Which one should we start with?’
He planned to try them all anyway, but he figured the order might change how he enjoyed them.
So, for the first one, he decided to go with something familiar.
“Hehe… Seia, come here. Let’s put this on.”
“A bunny?”
“Yeah. Bunny-ear headband.”
This headband could also change the shape of the ears.
One ear was gently bent, while the other was left straight.
Seia made that cute asymmetry even cuter.
‘Whew… so cute.’
Because her eyes were so big, she looked exactly like something out of a cartoon.
The white bunny ears went perfectly with the pastel pink hoodie she was wearing.
If the bunny-ear headband they had already seen once had this much impact, what would the others be like?
His expectations were growing uncontrollably, but he wasn’t worried.
Seia would more than live up to them.